Reconcilation

Reconciliation is the process of making enemies friends. It is bringing two parties together as friends.

2 Corinthians 5:16-21

From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard Him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

Paul uses the word reconciled or some form of that world five times in this passage.

Paul makes it very clear that God wants to reconcile people to Himself. God wants us to be His friends.

In this passage Paul tells us:

What God has done.

How God did it.

What our part is in God’s plan.

What God has done.

God has provided the opportunity to be reconciled or to be made friends with God.

According Genesis 1:27 God created us as humans in His image. We are the only thing that God created in His image. One of the things that it means for us to be created in God’s image is that we are capable of having a personal, intimate, love relationship with God.

God’s desire for each of us as His human creation is that we be friends with Him. That we live in intimate relationship

The way God did this was in two ways by one instrument.

When we are reconciled with God, we are made into a new creation.

When we were born, we were born with a nature to sin. Our default setting is that of sinning. This is why Jesus tells Nicodemus in John 3 that you  

must be born again.

When we surrender our lives over from our authority to Jesus’ authority, we are born again and become a whole new creation. We get a new nature that is empowered by the Holy Spirit to obey God.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is receiving a new nature and living in that new nature.

When we are reconciled with God, we take on us His righteousness because He took our sins.

Being reconciled with God means that I am righteous, not because of anything I have done but because God has declared me righteous based on Jesus’ finished work on the cross.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is accepting God’s declaration that I am righteous and living that way.

This new nature and new righteousness come solely because of Jesus’ death on the cross for our sins.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is all about the cross.

Our part in God’s plan of reconciliation is that, once we have experienced being reconciled to God, we are to become ambassadors of God’s reconciliation. We then become the messengers of reconciliation.

That means I don’t view any person according to the flesh. I don’t view people from a human viewpoint, but I view them as Jesus does.

In Matthew 5:44 Jesus tells us to:

Love our enemies

Pray for those who persecute us

I recently sat in a meeting with a group of church leaders and a discussion arose about the homeless in our community. The discussion became about how bad and dishonest these people were.

That is not being ambassadors of reconciliation.

Being ambassadors for reconciliation is:

Loving my enemies

Praying for those who persecute me

Loving people even if they disagree with me or don’t like me

Not judging people based on outward appearance

Sharing the truth of Jesus’ love, mercy, and grace

Allowing Jesus to overcome man-made barriers to the Gospel

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is being ambassadors of God’s message of reconciliation.

With Jesus, Reconciling People to Himself and Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

Joe

Grace & Punishment

All choices carry consequences. Good choices lead to certain outcomes. Bad choices lead to certain outcomes.

God, in His love for His human creation, pours out grace, and grace can overcome the consequences of our bad choices.

In 2 Peter we are shown the greatness of God’s grace and the seriousness of His judgment. 

2 Peter 2:4-10

For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until judgment; if He did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes He condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what

is going to happen to the ungodly, and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly

distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority.

Peter makes sure that we understand that God will punish sin and rebellion against His authority.

Peter mentions:

The fallen angels being cast into hell and chained up in gloomy darkness.

The ungodly people of the ancient world who refused to hear and respond to the truth.

The wicked people of Sodom and Gomorrah who lived their lives focused on sensual pleasures.

All three of these groups had access to the truth and opportunity to change. They chose to ignore and reject God and His will to do their own will.

Bringing judgment is not God’s preference. God is love and a God of grace and mercy. He loves His human creation and desires to grace us, not judge us.

But God is a just God and will judge and punish sin. When we make choices that are sin, we face the danger of judgment.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is recognizing that sin leads to God’s judgment.

We also see God’s grace in this passage.

God’s grace saves Noah and his family from the flood.

Genesis 6:8 says that Noah found favor in the eyes of God. Favor is grace. Noah was given grace by God.

It was not Noah’s life that caused God to save Noah. It was God’s grace that caused Him to save Noah.

Out of God’s grace we are told twice (Genesis 6:22 & 7:5) that Noah did what God commanded. This obedience came after God had pour out grace on Noah.

Peter calls Noah a herald of righteousness. This again came after God graced Noah.

When God gave Noah grace, Noah’s response was obedience and proclamation of God’s truth.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is receiving God’s grace and responding in gratitude and obedience.

Noah was not a perfect person.

In Genesis 9:21 we are told that Noah drank wine and got drunk and he then passed out naked in his tent. His sons had to come in and cover him up.

God does not require perfection. Grace overcomes our imperfections.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is not depending on always doing it right but on God’s grace.

 God’s grace delivers Lot from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Peter calls Lot a righteous man.

Lot selfishly chose the Jordan Valley area. This area was lush and green. It was the best pasture land around and Lot chose it as where he wanted to go when given the opportunity by Abraham. Lot moved to live close to Sodom and Gomorrah and then eventually into Sodom itself.

And even when Lot was told what God was about to do, destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, he was reluctant to leave.

In Genesis 19 after Lot and his daughters had escaped the destruction, Lot had sex with his daughters and produced children.

Lot didn’t look very righteous from a human point of view.

God declared him righteous based on His grace.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is allowing God’s view of us to be who we are.

Sin brings punishment, but God’s grace overcomes the sin and punishment.

By and Through the Grace of God,

Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                                       Joe

Difficulties Turned to Strengths

Jesus was not a trained rabbi. He had not studied under a certified rabbi of any kind. The Jewish religious leaders did not acknowledge Jesus as a rabbi and certainly not as the Messiah.

Jesus experienced rejection from many sources. Jesus didn’t view Himself or define Himself by what others said or thought about Him. He defined Himself by what the Father said to Him.

Matthew 3:17

And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased.”

Matthew 17: 5

While he was speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is My Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased. Listen to Him!”

The Father says:

Jesus is His Son

Jesus is loved by the Father

Jesus is pleasing to the Father

Jesus is to be listened to

Jesus knew all this and was reminded by the Father at a very critical times in His life.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is letting God define you, not the world.

When most people give their qualifications for ministry, they mention education, training, and experience.

In 2 Corinthians 11, Paul lists the things that don’t qualify him and those that do qualify him to be a minister of Jesus.

In verse 22 Paul says that he is a Hebrew, an Israelite, and a descendant of Abraham. These are not what Paul see as qualifying him to serve Jesus.

In verses 23 through 27 Paul list his qualifications:

Prison Time

Floggings

Exposed to Death Many Times

Five Times Receiving 39 Lashes

Three Times Beaten with Rods

Stoned (with stones)

Three Shipwrecks

A Time in the Open Sea

Constantly Moving from Place to Place

In Danger from Rivers

In Danger from Bandits

In Danger from His Own Countrymen

In Danger from Gentiles

In Danger in the City

In Danger in the Country

In Danger at Sea

In Danger from False Brothers

Labors and Toils

Without Sleep

Hungry and Thirsty

Cold and Naked

Paul list his scars as his qualifications.

We, as a rule, try to avoid danger and punishment and discomfort. Paul saw them as a part of what it meant to follow Jesus.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is letting our difficult times equip us to minister the Gospel.

Paul does not allow all these difficult times to lead him to see himself as a victim.

In 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 Paul says, “But He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weakness, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Paul saw his difficulties as something to boast in.

Paul saw his difficulties as something that made him stronger.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is allowing God to turn your difficulties into strengths.

I experienced some of those difficulties this past week. I found myself in the local ER Thursday night with chest pains and high blood pressure. It turned out that is was not my heart, but it did involve stress. The stress was not put on me from others, but stress I put on myself.

God had been speaking to me about my worry and stress for some time. It took me laying in an ER hooked up to machines to hear God to tell me that ministry is not dependent on me and that I am not invincible. These last three days have felt more peaceful and joyful.

It has also shown me that I was being too critical of others. God’s grace is real for me and is to be dispensed to others.

It is truly amazing what God reveals when you slow down and listen to Him. It is also amazing how God uses difficult times to grow and strengthens us when we slow down and listen.

In God’s Power and God’s Perspective,

Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                                           Joe

Really Hear What God is Saying

I have been studying and teaching God’s Word for over four decades. There are many passages that I have read, studied, and taught many times. The fact is, there are times when I know the passage so well that I don’t think about what God is saying that might be a new understanding. I just study and teach it without really hearing what God is saying.

One of those passages is 1 John 1:9.

1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

I focused for a long time on the first part of that verse. The part that says “forgive us of our sins”, and ignored the second part that says “and cleanses us of all unrighteousness”.

Forgiveness of our sins is important. It is hugely important that, when we confess sins, God forgives. The truth that God forgives us of every sin when we confess it is comforting and gives me assurance of God’s love.

But the reality is I have been told by people that I was forgiven for something that I had done to someone only to have it brought up the next time I offended that person.

Jesus is telling us that He forgives us and releases us from the penalty of our sins. He is also assuring us that those sins are cleansed. Those sins are no longer true of us. Those sins have been removed from our lives: past, present, and future.

I no loner bear the penalty of those sins I have confessed.

I no longer bear the guilt of those sins I have confessed.

I no longer bear the shame of those sins I have confessed.

I did things when I was in high school that I look back on now and regret that I did them. But those are sins that I have confessed, and God has forgiven me and cleansed me of those.

God not only releases the penalty of my sin, He also takes away the shame of my sin.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is experiencing God’s forgiveness and God’s cleansing.

Then in Romans 8:1 it says, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

God will never condemn me or reject me.

I have been condemn by other humans.

I have been rejected by other humans.

I have never been and I will never be condemned or rejected by God.

That truth frees me in two areas.

It frees me never to fear that God will not want a relationship with me.

It frees me not to overreact when I am condemned or rejected by other humans.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is knowing that God wants a relationship with me and that will never change.

A third familiar passage is Romans 8:37-39 were we are told that we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. Then is goes on to tell us that all the things that we think will separate us from God’s love will actually never separate us from His love.

Things like:

Death nor Life

Angels nor Rulers

Things Present nor Things to Come

Nor Powers

Nor Height nor Depth

Nor Anything Else in All Creation

The truth that nothing in the physical or nothing in the spiritual can cause God not to love me is the most assuring truth that I could possibly have.

Almost everything in this world is based on how we perform.

I have to do certain things or have to measure up to a standard for others to like me. The truth that I don’t have to do anything to get God to love me and that His love will not ever be kept from me is awesome.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is knowing God loves me and that He will always love me, no matter what.

God forgives my sins.

God cleanses me from my sins.

God will never condemn me.

God will always love me.

God will never allow His love to be taken from me.

This is a God that, if I didn’t know, I would want to know.

This is a God that I want a relationship with.

Knowing Who God Really Is, and

Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                                         Joe

Blessings

I have the great blessing most mornings to sit on my front deck and watch the sunrise. I get to see it light up the mountains. I also get to sit and watch the sunsets and see the mountains appear as if they are on fire. I never thought I would live in the kind of house I live in or in the area I live in.

I have a great wife, I have great kids, I have great grandkids, and I pastor a great church.

God has allowed me to do what I love for over 40 years now.

I say all this to say I am blessed.

In Ephesians 1:3 Paul says that God has blessed

us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

God has given us everything we need for life and godliness.

I have to be honest. I at times don’t see myself as blessed. The reason I don’t see myself as blessed is because I define blessing as getting what I want when I want it. God defines blessing as giving me what will make me more like Jesus.

In Matthew 5:3-11 Jesus tells us we are blessed if:

We are poor in spirit

We mourn

We are meek

We hunger and thirst for righteousness

We are merciful

We are pure in heart

We are peacemakers

We are persecuted for righteous sake

I don’t always define blessings as Jesus does here in Matthew 5. I tend to see those not as blessings but burdens.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is recognizing and celebrating the blessings of God.

Psalm 18:1-3

I love You, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliver, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies.

I love what this verse says about who God is in relationship to us.

He is:

Our Lord

Our Strength

Our Rock

Our Fortress

Our Deliverer

Our Refuge

Our Shield

Our Horn of Salvation

Our Stronghold

Our God is worthy to be praised!

God desires for us as His people to experience Him as the God who protects and provides.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is experiencing God as our protector and our provider.

Then it says that when we call upon God He will deliver us from our enemies.

Notice it says that He will save us from our enemies.

The Bible makes clear that our enemy (singular) is Satan.

So, who are our enemies?

As I read this passage I asked God that very question. God showed me that I had four huge enemies that were robbing me from experiencing God’s blessing and hindering me from knowing God as my protector and provider.

Enemy #1: Lust

I have and still do at times struggle with lust. I don’t mean just sexual lust though that has been a struggle. I mean that I lust for material and emotional success from the world’s point of view.

There is nothing wrong with material things.

There is nothing wrong with emotional success.

But when I focus on acquiring material things and achieving success so I can feel good about myself, I push God to one side. I want the thing or the success more than I want Jesus. That then becomes what I worship.

God delivers me from the enemy of lust.

Enemy #2: Unthankfulness 

Being unthankful for what God has done and is doing hinders us from experiencing God and His blessings.

When I am not thankful for what God has done, it means I am focusing on what I don’t have instead of focusing on how God has blessed me.

God has blessed me through His grace beyond anything I deserve and I need to focus on that truth.

Enemy #3: Condemnation

In Romans 8:1 we are told that In Christ there is no condemnation. If God does not condemn, I have no authority to condemn what God has not.

I don’t have the authority to condemn or judge. When I try to exercise that authority, I attempt to act as God and that separates me from knowing God and experiencing His blessings.

Enemy #4: Fear

Fear makes me focus on circumstances and other people and what they think so I miss the truth of God as my protector and provider.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is experiencing God delivering me from my enemies.

With God Blessing Me, Protecting Me, and Providing for Me

by Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                                         Joe

Choosing

In Joshua 24, Joshua summarizes the history of what God had done for the people of Israel.

In verse 14 Joshua tells the people, “Now fear the Lord, and serve Him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the river and in Egypt, and serve the Lord.”

Notice Joshua doesn’t say to just stop worshiping the false gods, but he says to throw them away.

We have to get rid of false gods from our lives.

In Ezekiel 14:6 God outlines how to rid our lives of false gods.

We are to recognize that we have set up idols in our lives. Before you can deal with any problem, you have to recognize that there is a problem.

We have to acknowledge it is sin. It is important to agree with God that something He calls sin is what you also call sin. Sin is defined by God, not by humans.

In Psalm 51:4 David says, “Against you, you only have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight.” David is acknowledging that what he did was sin because God said it was sin.

In 1 John 1:10 it says, “If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.”

We have to repent. Repenting means to have a change of mind that leads to a change of behavior.

There are two parts of repentance. The turning from sin and the turning to God.

It is vital that we do both the:

Turning From

And

Turning To

Just turning from is not enough because if we don’t turn to God we are left to overcome the sin by our own power. If we could overcome sin by our own power, we would not have sinned in the first place. We are not strong enough. When we turn to God, we have the power of the Holy Spirit to overcome in and through us.

Lastly, we denounce the idol, the false god. We get rid of the idol from our lives.

Recognize

Acknowledge

Repent

Denounce

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is getting rid of the false gods from our lives.

In Joshua 24:15 Joshua tells the people, “But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

We have to choose.

When I hear people talk about being Christians, I hear things like:

I grew up in a Christian home (so did some serial killers).

I go to church (I go into my garage but that doesn’t make me a car).

I believe in God (so do the demons).

I live in America (many who live here don’t claim to be Christians).

“Christian” is not a default setting. We have to make an intentional choice to surrender our lives to Jesus.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is intentionally choosing to believe in and following Jesus as Lord.

Joshua says that he and his family will serve the Lord.

Joshua doesn’t say they may or could or plan to serve the Lord; he says they will serve Lord.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is, no matter what, serving Jesus as Lord.

I have served many false gods in my life. Gods like success in ministry, titles and positions, family, and comfort.

Anything that comes before God in any way is an idol, a false god. We can let even good things become an idol.

As for me and my family, We Will Serve the Lord!

Choosing to Serve Jesus by Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                                     Joe

Jesus and Adam

We were house sitting for a lady when Jan and I were early in our marriage. I got a phone call one night asking to speak to my mother. I was not sure how to answer. I finally said, “I’m an adult. My mother doesn’t live here.”

How do you identity yourself to others?

In Genesis 1:26 God says, “Let us make man in our own image, after our likeness.”

In Genesis 1:27 it says, “So God made man in His own image, in the image of God He created him, male and female He created them.”

You and I are created in the image of God, after the likeness of God. Nothing else in all that God created is describe as being created in God’s image.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is knowing that we were originally created in the image of God.

In Genesis 3 Adam and Eve, the bearers of God’s image, sinned. They disobeyed God. That perverted the image in God in them and of every person born since then.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is knowing that the image of God in us has been perverted.

In 1 Corinthians 15:45 it says, “Thus it is written, ‘The first man Adam became a living being; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.’”

The last Adam is Jesus.

Paul is telling us that we can bear the perverted image that Adam brought on us or we can bear the restored image that Jesus brings to us.

The contrast is huge.

The first Adam was the source of idolatry.

The second Adam is the source of moving us back to the true worship of God.

The first Adam is the instrument of humanity’s downfall.

The second Adam is the instrument of humanity’s salvation.

The first Adam turned from the Father in a garden.

The second Adam turned to the Father in a garden.

The first Adam was naked and ashamed.

The second Adam was naked and bore our shame.

The first Adam’s sin brought us thorns.

The second Adam wore a crown of thorns for us.

The first Adam substituted himself for God.

The second Adam substituted Himself for sinners (that would be us).

The first Adam sinned at a tree.

The second Adam bore our sins on a tree.

The first Adam died as a sinner.

The second Adam died for sinners.

Those are the differences between the first Adam and the second Adam, Jesus.

We have a choice as to which image we will bear in life, the first Adam’s or the second Adam’s. Whichever choice we make will carry consequences.

The consequences of which image we bear:

We die bearing Adam’s image.

We are born again bearing Jesus’ image.

We are condemned bearing Adam’s image.

We have salvation bearing Jesus’ image.

We are cursed bearing Adam’s image.

We are blessed bearing Jesus’ image.

We have a sin nature bearing Adam’s image.

We receive a new nature bearing Jesus’ image.

We have wrath and death bearing Adam’s image.

We have love and life bearing Jesus’ image.

The direction of our lives is determined by whose image we are bearing.

The final destination of our lives is determined by whose image we are bearing.

When people ask you who you are, how do you respond?

I don’t identify with who my ancestors were.

I don’t identify with what kind of house I live in or what kind of car I drive.

I don’t identify with what my job is or how much money I make.

I don’t identify with a political party or certain life philosophy.

I am a child of God.

I am a follower of Jesus.

I am in Christ.

I am the righteousness of God.

I identify with Jesus and Him only.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is identifying our lives solely with who Jesus is.

With Jesus, Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

Joe